


After The Storm Comes The..

by writerinthedark4



Series: One Shots Juliantina [2]
Category: Amar a Muerte (TV), Juliantina - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 21:25:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19776730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerinthedark4/pseuds/writerinthedark4
Summary: A quick glimpse into the lull that has become Valentina and Juliana's life after all the events that happened between them and their families.





	After The Storm Comes The..

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hello again!  
> This one shot was born after one kind sould left a comment in one of my fics about wanting to read a better version of what happened between Valentina and Juliana after the whole Sérgio thing, so this is my humble attempt. I wasn't going to write anything because I already have a fic that I'm updating (and I'll update a new chapter until Sunday and here's the link if anyone's interested in reading it too https://archiveofourown.org/works/19403254/chapters/46174957) and I just felt it might've been too much, but nothing's too much when it's involved one of my two favorite characters EVER.
> 
> So here it is, a huge ass chapter for you with my thoughts on what happened at the end of AAM, but before the 2 years gap, and still, the main focus is their convo about what happened with Sérgio.
> 
> I hope you like it!  
> Please leave comments on what were your thoughts and/or if I should write more one shots related to our beloveds.
> 
> thank you thank you thank for reading all my work in here.
> 
> ps.: I'm kind of posting this 4am in my local time after finishing the final review and english is not my mother language (it's portuguese) so if you find any grammatical mistake, pretend it doesn't exist. thank youuu
> 
> If you want to talk and tell me how horrible this was or how great this was or just tell me more ideas for one shots, you can follow me on twitter @baielas. i write a lot of shit in portuguese but in english too, equal rights you know.

Juliana was waiting for Valentina, lying in her room while making some sketches. Since she had arrived in Mexico she hadn’t drawn anything, the pieces she modified in the first few months in the Latin country (hidden from Milagros) were only customizations, since she didn’t have material to do anything bigger or more elaborated.

When El Chino gave her and her mother the briefcase with money saying that she could use it to pay for her fashion school, her first reaction was being in a complete shock - it would be the first time since Chino gave her something in a long time, and her second reaction was to deny it, because in her mind it was dirty money, and she didn’t need dirty money.But in the end they ended up accepting and today are using the money to improve their lives.

Now, Juliana and her mother are living in the apartment Panchito has found for them, and although only the two women reside in the apartment, Panchito's presence is constant. He doesn’t live there because his relationship with Lupe is still too recent for them to take such a big step, but that doesn’t change the fact that he's there almost every day.

In addition to having moved, Juls' mother also had changed her workplace because she wanted to get a job where she’d get a better payment and maybe work less hours. Not that working at the restaurant was bad, she was very grateful about everything that Perita had done for both of them in the short time she worked there, but she needed a job that would guarantee a little more financial freedom for her and Juliana, since El Chino’s money wouldn’t last forever. She then got a job as an office assistant, having to work only on weekdays and was gaining relatively well. Well enough that Juliana didn’t have to work anymore and could just keep on focusing on her studies.

And that was what Juliana was doing. As soon as the whole situation with her’s and Valentina’s father, and she and her mother were properly housed in the apartment, the two began to look for a course so Juliana could finish high school without actually having to study for another whole year, and it was what Juliana was doing. It had been a week since she was attending this intensive high school course, where in 3 months she could complete school and finally graduate. And at the same time that she would be studying, she would be able to enter Rafaela’s, Guille's godmother, fashion school.

After all the confusion had ceased, she and Valentina returned to the school and talked to Rafaela about everything that had happened, and Rafaela, despite saying that normally she wouldn’t do this, decided to give Juliana a new chance and asked her to produce 10 sketches of women's clothes and that she’d gave Juliana 15 days to show it to her, and explained that the time was short because the semester’s classes was about to start and that if Juliana took too long to deliver she wouldn’t be able to enter this semester, only in the next year. She also said that she wanted that many sketches because she needed to know if Juliana really was talented, so she could bet on her talent. That if she passed the interview.

After talking to Rafaela, Valentina and Juliana went looking for a stationery shop to buy the necessary materials so Juliana could start designing the models. In nine days she already had seven models drawn, missing only three, when she had an idea: to make a dress so that Valentina could use on the day of her interview. She didn’t know if it would be inconvenient or not to make Valentina to wear one of her pieces, but she knew it would definitely make a different impact on Rafaela's decision because she wouldn’t be expecting it, so that's what she did. On the day of the interview, she showed nine drawings and when Rafaela asked about the last one, Juliana called Valentina’s name and she entered the room wearing a long dress with a thin blue cloth (which Juliana obviously was inspired by Valentina's eyes), open on the sides and with some sequins that made the dress shine at night. The dress almost covered Valentina's feet and moved around her body as if she had a constant wind on her, due to the lightness of the fabric.

Rafaela was very pleased with what Juliana had shown her and the fact that Juliana went beyond on what she asked her to do and brought Valentina wearing one of her creations, which had showed at the same time that she was also very good at sewing, which is very important, so, after interviewing Juliana about why she wanted to be a fashion designer, when she sees herself in ten years, how does she think that fashion can change a person’s life and a few other random questions, she accepted Juliana instantly, giving half a scholarship to her along with the supplies needed for the first semester. Juliana and Valentina left school hopping and shouting in happiness, Juliana not believing in what had happened and Valentina being absolutely sure that this was the only thing that could have happened.

A week had passed since Juliana had been accepted into the Fashion School and already had dozens of sketches made, of different types of clothing that were scattered all over her room. Next to her single bed was a mannequin and beside the mannequin a used machine that her mother had bought her, because a new one would be too expensive, but it didn’t make any difference to Juliana, the machine worked perfectly fine and had all the requests she needed.

And so that was all she did while she waited for Valentina to arrive, drew more sketches. It would never have crossed her mind, not in a million years that in only a month her life could change so much, and finally for the better (obviously after meeting Valentina). A month ago she was being kidnapped and threatened with death and other things. Lucho and Lucia had died and she and Valentina were in a moment of their relationship that both didn’t know very well how to define.

Valentina in the other hand was trying to decide what to do with her life and was fighting a battle with herself between taking time for herself so she could absorb the losts she had in such a short time and all the rest involving Juliana and the story of their parents, and about going back to college definitely and try to make up for lost time. She didn’t even know if she could be able to recover everything, but in the end she decided to go back to college just to leave the house. Juliana would be too busy focusing on her studies to finish school and that would make Valentina spend a lot of time alone in that huge house, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. Guille was no longer there and neither was Mateo, so Valentina's best option was to go back to college so she could focus on something, or try to focus on something, at least until Juliana was free of her activities. 

But she knew that if her and Juliana facing everything together, they could overcome any obstacle.

_________________________________________________

Her bedroom door opened slowly and she saw Valentina coming in, smiling at her, a vision that Juliana doubted if she would ever get tired of seeing.

It was Saturday and they had scheduled to spend the day together at the brunette's house, and was agreed that she would pick up Juliana herself because she would have to leave the house to go to the Carvajal Company anyway.

"Hola, beautiful," Valentina said closing the door behind her and walking toward Juliana, giving her a quick kiss.

"Hola!" Juliana smiled at her. "I thought you'd come in a bit later?"

"The conversation with Matthew and Guille ended sooner than I imagined, thanks to the universe. I missed you." Valentina said joining Juliana's drawings on her bed and placing it on the table, then lied next to her, putting her arm across her stomach as she leaned her head against Juliana’s chest.

"I missed you too." Juliana said, smoothing Valentina's hair and giving a kiss on her head. "How was the meeting?"

"Mateo wanted to let us know what was going on since Eva left the presidency, Guille was already aware of most of the things since he works there too, so Mateo wanted to update me and talk a little about everything."

"And is everything ok?"

"Yes, it is" Valentina answered and moved a little to stay closer to Juliana. They hadn’t been a long time together, less than six months, and they definitely didn’t had a lot of opportunities to be like this, one on top of the other, relaxing without worrying about interruptions. "This's relaxing."

Lupe and Juliana hadn’t talked yet about their relationship, not even the two of them had talked much about it, they were just living it. But of course Lupe knew she and Valentina had something and she was okay about the whole thing. Apparently. 

Since the day Valentina's father went for a trip, they saw each other almost every day and tried to spend most of the time together, but they hadn’t labeled what they were having. Of course Valentina wanted to tell the whole world (again) and scream for everyone that Juliana was her girlfriend and had thought about many ways she could ask Juliana to be her girlfriend, but it seems out of place and she just wanted to be in a better place to ask for it. She was still mourning the newly deaths and the fact that her sister was in jail and that her father, even though alive, wasn’t around anymore. 

The two of them were silent for a moment, just listening to each other's breath in the quiet room, while Juliana caressed Valentina's head, playing with her hair. But despite the silence in the room, and the seeming tranquility, Juliana knew that Valentina was uneasy. She had realized that Valentina hadn’t said everything she wanted, but she didn’t know if it would be right to press her to say anything. She how Valentina loved to talk, so if she wanted to, she’d already have.

Shortly afterwards, Juliana's own restlessness prevented her from staying still and she asked, "Val, did something else happen?"

"No, not at all."

"Are you sure?" Juliana said taking her free hand to Valentina's chin, forcing the brunette to look into the dark haired woman's eyes. "You're very quiet, and that's not very normal."  
Juliana smiled. "What happened?"

"It's been a month since Lucho died." Valentina said with a shrug, not looking into her eyes.

Juliana felt instantly ill because. She hadn’t remembered and if it wasn’t for Lucho’s help, she didn’t know if the police would have found her as quickly and saved her from Alacran’s men, and maybe Juliana wouldn’t be here right now, holding Valentina in her arms.

"Sorry Val." Juliana said staring at Valentina. "I didn’t remember that it was today, I just have been so oc-"

"You don’t have to remember, Juls." Valentina said putting her hands on Juliana's face. "You don’t need to apologize. There's a lot going on in your life at the same time and it's normal to forget things."

"There are a lot of things going on in your life as well, Val and you haven’t forgotten." Juliana retorted.

"Yes, but he was my boyfriend." Valentina said looking sweetly at Juliana. “But, hey, don’t worry." Valentina said getting up and out of the bed and giving her hand to Juliana so she could stand too. "Now let’s just go to my house because I need to get into my pool and relax."

"I thought you were already relaxing?" Juliana said in a joking tone.

"I was, silly." Valentina pulled Juliana over the edge of her shirt to bring her closer to her and gave her a kiss. "But I want to relax even more. And see you in a bikini, though I don’t know if relaxing will be the exact feeling that I will feel when I see you semi naked." She said teasing Juliana.

"Jesus Christ, Valentina, calm your hormones." Juliana laughed and picked up her backpack that was already done to spend the weekend at Valentina's house and they left the room, not before Juliana got her sketchbook and her pencil case.

_________________________________________________

Juliana and Valentina entered the living room and Lupe was watching TV with Panchito, and as soon as she saw the girls she gave them a half-shy smile.

"Hi girls, are you leaving already?" Lupe asked looking at one of the girls at a time.

"Yes Ma, we're already going. Alirio is waiting for us." Juliana answered while stood in front of Lupe and gave her a kiss. "I'm taking some more clothes to Valentina's house because I'll stay there until Monday and I'll go straight from her house to the course."

Lupe heard everything and when Juliana finished she smiled at Valentina. "Okay, mi hija, I'll see you on Monday then." Lupe said getting up to give Juliana a hug. "Have fun." She said and then turned to Valentina. "See you soon too, Valentina." Lupe leaned in and hugged the brunette, too. "It's been a month since his death, isn’t it?" Lupe asked softly staring at Valentina, who only nodded. "I'm sorry. He was really kind to help us, wasn’t him, Juli?"

Juliana was watching the interaction between them so intensely that she barely heard what her mother had asked her. All this was still very new to her. "Ahm... yes Ma. He was incredible." She replied, squeezing Valentina's hand quickly, as she gave her a smile in return. "Okay, Ma, we're going. Bye, Panchito!" Juliana said goodbye to him, followed by Valentina.

And with that, the two of them left Juliana's apartment in silence, because both still didn’t know how to react when situations like these happened. After Valentina said to the whole country in a national television that she loved Juliana, Lupe accepted what they have because she realized that Valentina really loved her daughter, but she was still getting used to seeing the two of them together, and they tried not to overuse their luck.

_________________________________________________

After arriving at Valentina’s place, they went straight to her room to change into their bikinis and then ran downstairs to the pool area. The past month, when they had time, they used to hang out a lot in there, with Valentina still teaching Juliana how to swim, which now she was so much better than when they started. Juliana still didn’t know how to do everything, but she learned how to float and could be left alone there, without having to rely on Valentina to hold her all the time. 

After a few minutes doing nothing but swim, just swimming and chatting about how it was each other's week, Chivis showed up informing them that dinner would be served in a few minutes and telling Valentina that Guille was trying to talk to her.

"How come he’s trying to talk to me?" Valentina asked confused.

"He said he tried your phone a couple of times but you didn’t answer. He even called Juliana, but since she didn’t picked up either he thought you two were occupied."

Upon hearing what Chivis said, Valentina realized that her cell phone was not in the pool and that she must have forgotten in her room. "Thank you, Chivis, I'll get it and will call him. And we'll be in the dining room too in a sec."

"I think we can get out of the pool and go dry right now, right? Meanwhile I'm going to get our phones." Valentina asked Juliana as she moved to leave the pool.

"Okay, I'll wait for you here.” Juliana asked following the brunette, who was already out of the pool. “Bring me a blouse, please?"

"Okay!"

Wrapping herself in a towel before entering the house to not wet everything, Valentina went to her bathroom to take off her wet swimsuit and change into a blouse and shorts, and then took the same clothes for Juliana. Her phone was on top of her dresser and she saw that she had three missed calls from her brother and called him.  
15 minutes later Valentina was returning to the pool when she saw Sergio arriving and greeting Juliana, giving her a long hug followed by a kiss. Valentina didn’t know exactly what it was or why, but she felt a pang in her stomach with what she had just seen, and tried to get it out of her head because what she had seen was nothing. It was just Sérgio hugging Juliana, cuz they were friends.

She knew they were friends, just as Sergio and Valentina were friends. But even knowing all this, she didn’t have the strength to continue walking toward the pool, and instead, she was looking at all the interaction between the two, who hadn’t yet realized they were being watched.

Juliana was sitting in the chair with her legs crossed, the towel over her shoulders but it wasn’t covering anything. Sérgio was sitting in front of her and they were talking with smiles on their faces. Juliana had Valentina's favorite smile on her face, and Valentina didn’t understand what Sérgio might be talking about to make her smile that way

Then Juliana said something that Valentina couldn’t understand, but she realized that it was funny enough for the two of them to laugh enough that made Juliana throw her head back, asking for Sergio to stop, and that was when Valentina couldn’t take it anymore and entered the pool area making her presence noticed.

"Val, look who came to see you." Juliana said smiling as she saw Valentina approaching.

"I came to see you both!" Sergio said smiling to Juliana and then to Valentina.

Valentina looked at Sergio and gave a small smile to the boy. "Hi Sérgio," she said as she approached the two. "I’m not trying to be rude, but why are you here?"

"Wow, Can’t I visit my friend anymore?" Sergio asked, pretending to be on the defensive.

"Oh, now we're friends." Valentina thought as she heard his response.

Yes, they were friends. Always have been. And although it was thanks to him she found where Juliana was after she left Chivis's house, (apparently the short time between the two affected Valentina’s head so much that the brunette forgot how to use her phone to try to talk to Juliana.) Valentina still hadn’t forgotten what he had done to her. And yes, she and Juliana had talked about it, kind of, but still, she couldn’t control que emotions right now.

"Of course you can, Serg!" Valentina said, trying to keep the tone of her voice as normal as possible, not to show how uncomfortable she was with him there. "Here, baby,"Valentina handed the clothes she brought and the towel that was behind her Juliana to her. "Go change in the bathroom, I'll wait for you here." she finished, smiling at Juliana, who looked at her in a little confusion and headed toward the bathroom.

"Are you okay, Val?" Sergio asked looking at her, but Valentina looked everywhere but at him.

"Yes I am. You?" She asked back.

“Are you sure you're okay? You don't sound like it. "

"Why would I not be ok, Sergio?" She asked looking at him this time.

Sérgio looked at her for a few seconds, as if thinking about what he was going to say next. "I don’t know. Today made a month of his death and... well. It's good that you're ok."

"What, I don’t seem to be saddened enough by the date it represents today?" Valentina asked irritably.

"I did not say that-"

"You didn’t’ sound sad either, you're were laughing with Juliana a few minutes ago. Why can’t I do the same?"

"I didn’t mean it in that way, yeah, it's been a month since his death, and yeah we’re sad but that’s not why I’m finding you different and I don’t know what it is, but I know you are. I've known you since childhood, Valentina, we're friends! "

"Oh," Valentina let out a low, ironic laugh. "Now we're friends then." She glared at him.

"I thought we had already gotten over Valentina." Sergio said quietly and when he saw Juliana approaching he changed the subject. "But it's okay, Vale. I'll see you another time."

Valentina didn’t understand the sudden change in the conversation until she looked back and saw Juliana approaching. "You’re leaving, Sergio? I thought you were gonna stay for dinner." the black haired girl asked, reaching for Valentina and putting her arms around her shoulder.

"Ahm, not Juls today, rain check? I came quick here today just to see how Valentina is, and now that I know she's in good hands I can go." He said smiling at Juliana. "Goodbye girls, see you another day." And with that, he put his hands in his pockets and headed toward the house to leave.

"Is everything okay between you two?" Juliana asked as she lost sight of Sergio.

"Yes, why would not I be?" Valentina asked smiling, getting up and turning to Juliana.

"I don't know." Juliana said with a shrug. "I felt a different vibe between you guys today, that's all."

"No different vibe, just two old friends." Valentina said taking Juliana's hand and leading her into the dining room. "Now let's eat because I'm hungry."

After dinner they went to the TV room to watch some movie and today was Valentina's turn to choose what to watch. Both of the girls had a very different taste when it comes to movies. While Valentina enjoyed romance and drama and science fiction films, Juliana liked adventure movies, action films and musicals. And by musicals being the only common taste they both had, Valentina was always a bit puzzled by why Juliana liked it, because to her, it was totally random. And then finally one day Juliana explained that the musicals she used to watch when she was younger were sometimes always about poor people or about people that lived in some situation that was not indicated for them to live in, but they were always singing and dancing and dreaming about better futures and that left her hoping the same, to leave the life she had behind by singing and dancing.Obviously Juliana used to think like that when she was little, but the love she felt for this genre eventually grew up along with her.

"What are we going to watch today?" Juliana asked as she sat down on the couch.

"Ahm, you can choose again today." Valentina said sitting down next to her.

"What? But it's your turn, Val. You always get so excited when it's your day to choose." Juliana turned to face her. "What happened?"

"Nothing Juls, nothing happened. I just don’t want to choose something today. I just want to sit and relax and hold you until you fall sleep." Valentina said pushing Juliana lightly making the black-haired girl smile.

"I'll let it go by now." Juliana said getting up to take control. "And also because I really want to watch this movie and didn’t want to wait until next weekend to watch." She continued. "And, hey! I don’t sleep watching movies anymore." She said defensively."I slept twice because I was extremely exhausted and you are using my tiredness to make fun of me. Such a nice person.”

"I'm sorry, baby," Valentina said, pulling Juliana and hugging her around the waist. "It's just so fun to see how fast you can get annoyed." She kissed her cheek.

"Okay, okay." Juliana said freeing herself from Valentina's arms and sitting on the other end of the couch, causing Valentine to follow her and lie down with her head on her legs. 

"You're going to love this movie."

-

They were in the middle of the second movie when Juliana realized that Valentina was not paying any attention to the TV. And as much as Juliana tried to wonder what she might be thinking, she came out with nothing. Was Valentina so spattered by Lucho's death? After all they were together for a long time and he died in front of her, trying to save Juliana who had been kidnapped by narcos. How much can all of that affect someone, she didn’t know, but she would do everything to understand.

A few more minutes passed and now neither were paying attention to what the TV was showing them. While Juliana played with Valentina's hair and watched her trying to read her expressions, Valentina stared at the wall. And then Juliana remembered that when they were lying on her bed earlier and Valentina was talking about what the meeting with Mateo and Guille had been like, she felt that Valentina wanted to say something more but had deprived herself. That should be it.

"Val .." Juliana started. "You almost didn’t pay attention to the first movie, but this one you didn’t even look at the screen, what happened?"

Valentina turned around to face Juliana. "Nothing has happened, babe. Maybe I'm just a bit tired."

"Is this about what you wanted to tell me earlier in my apartment?" Juliana was looking at Valentina trying to pass on all the tranquility and comfort to the brunette, so she could feel safe to talk about anything. Though Juliana thought she already knew that.

"No, it's not about that. It's nothing." Valentina said getting up. "Why don’t we go to bed? It's late, isn’t it? Let's go upstairs," she said, holding out her hand for Juliana to take and she guided them toward her room.

Arriving in her room Valentina thought that Juliana was going to forget about the subject and that they would go to sleep peacefully, or at least try, because Valentina was sure she would take some time to fall asleep. But that's not what happened.

As soon as they entered the room and Juliana closed the door behind her and locked it, the black-haired girl pulled Valentina and pressed her against the door, giving her a kiss. "Please tell me why you're acting like this. It's making me restless and I don’t know what to do." Juliana said breaking the kiss and looking intensely at Valentina, who could only see concern in the younger girl's eyes. "Please."

Valentina took a long breath and took Juliana's hand, guiding them to her bed.

"Guille and Matthew want me to do therapy." She said sitting on the bed. 

“Well, is that why you were so quiet most of the day? I’ve said that to you already.” Juliana remembered.

"Yea, you did. But Guille has been asking me for some time actually but I always denied saying I didn’t need it, that I just needed some time to adjust to my new life. So yesterday he and Matthew tried to persuade me once more." Valentina was saying as she looked at their interlocking hands. "And today they told me that they set a schedule with a known therapist, and that I was only going to see what it would be like, without compromises... And they said that you should do it too. Therapy I mean. And I agree with them, I think you should go too." Valentina said raising her gaze until she could see Juliana's, that were staring back at hers.

"You think I should do therapy, too?" Juliana asked Valentina, who nodded.

"I mean, you've been through a lot too Juls, you've been kidnapped by narcos, damn it, you've been with them for days, you've been threatened every day, and it's not ok to pretend that everything's alright and that you're 100% well because I know sometimes you're not." Valentina said and now Juliana wasn’t looking at her. "I noticed that every time we have to pass through a gas station you get uneasy and sometimes even nervous. Or how sometimes you get scared when we're walking down the street and some car stops next to you quickly, your body gets automatically tense and I can feel it because you hold my hand tighter. Or how sometimes you have nightmares at night and you move too much in bed. I noticed all of this, Juls, I just never said anything because I thought sooner or later you were going to feel comfortable enough about talking to me about it. But that day never came." Valentina stroked Juliana's hand. "And the funny thing is, you already told me to do therapy, or to talk to Camilo again. You noticed I wasn’t in a good place, not fully. You worried about me and worried about what happened after Lucho and Lucia died, and you took care of me, but when it comes to you, it just seems like nothing’s happened. And this is not ok, Juls." Valentina finished speaking almost whispering, placing both hands on Juliana's cheeks making her look at her. "We both need help. Being alone in the comfort of our embrace.. I fear will not be enough for us to heal completely."

Juliana was quiet for a while, as if she was absorbing everything Valentina had said.

She didn’t disagree with what Valentina had said. Yes, she knew she wasn’t well. She knew about the nightmares she had. She could sometimes still smell and feel the gasoline on her skin. Sometimes she even sensed Alacran's presence when she was in the middle of the street alone. But she also knew that it was over. That Alacran had died. That his cronies were behind bars. That she was safe, and her mother, and that Valentina and she were well. And she tried to live on the basis of these thoughts, that everything was over and that everything was fine, but deep down she knew it was not - and she hated that Valentina noticed.

"Okay, yeah, you're right." Juliana finally said after a few moments in silence. "I'll do therapy, yes." She smiled at Valentina, who smiled back at her. "But only if you do it too."

"Yes, of course." Valentina said in agreement.

"Was that why you were weird earlier? And when were we watching the movie?"

"Yes." Valentina lied. Well, it was half a lie. "I didn’t know how to approach this subject with you and I was thinking how to do it."

"Valentina, you know you can talk to me about anything you want, when you want and how you want." Juliana said looking at Valentina. "And you were never afraid to tell me anything, what changed this time?"

"I don’t know." Vale responded, tugging a lock of hair from the smaller one behind her ear. "I guess I was afraid to scare you talking about therapy, I don’t know, you could think I was thinking you were crazy." Valentina giggled and Juliana smiled with her.

"I think you’re crazy right now because you thought that I might have thought you were crazy." Juliana slapped Valentina on the shoulder, still laughing.

A few seconds later, Juliana came closer to Valentina and planted a delicate kiss over her lips. "Te quiero. Te quiero mucho. Thank you for caring about me."

Valentina had a smile on her face after she heard what Juliana said. Listening to Juliana talking these things always made Valentina smile bigger and her heart race a little faster.  
"Te quiero tambien." She kissed Juliana back. "Let's sleep now, we'll figure it out this while therapy thing tomorrow."

Juliana and Valentina spent the entire morning asleep - a reflection of the tiresome week they both had. Well, at least Juliana slept the whole time, because Valentina had spent most of the night thinking about how Juliana and Sérgio were comfortable with each other. And losing sleep with that was making her angry, because it had been nothing.

She and the black haired girl had already talked about what had happened between her and Sérgio and Juliana had already explained the situation that led her to do that. Valentina doesn’t remember everything they talked because it had been more than a month ago since they had the conversation and Valentina was still sleepy because of the remedies she had taken to sleep the day before, after all, that day had been one of the worst in her life. She still couldn’t take the image of Lucho's body dead on the floor off of her mind. And the most she thinks about doing therapy the more she knows is the right and smart thing to do if she wanted to get better sooner.

It was close to 3am and she was still unable to sleep. She couldn’t sleep thinking about Lucho. She couldn’t sleep thinking about Lucia. She couldn’t sleep thinking about Sergio. She couldn’t sleep thinking about the possibility that Juliana didn’t feel what she felt for her with the same intensity, which scared her. Because it was a lot. 

"This is stupid." She whispered to herself and got up from the bed carefully so as not to wake Juliana, who was a very light sleeper, and went to the kitchen to drink a glass of warm milk, praying that it would make her sleepy. A few minutes later she went back to bed and found Juliana sitting on the bed, looking at the door.

"Where did you go?" Juliana asked in a hoarse voice.

"I went to have a glass of milk to see if I could sleep." Valentina said as she climbed onto the bed and settled between the covers, turning to face Juliana. "I can’t sleep."

Juliana pouted to her and stroked her face, which made Valentina automatically lean with the touch. "Come here." Juliana whispered to Valentina. "Turn around." And when Valentina obeyed her, Juliana hugged her from behind and tried to leave as little space between them as possible. She put her left hand inside Valentina's blouse and began to draw little patterns on the older girl's warm skin.

Valentina was instantly relaxed with Juliana's touch. Her hands were warm and inviting, the patterns Juliana was drawing on her stomach was soothing and Valentina couldn’t focus on anything but that region of her body. Juliana placed a kiss under her ear and told her to close her eyes. "I'll hold you like this until you're asleep. Don’t worry, I won’t let you go."

And with those words of reassurance, Valentina let the tranquility and security she felt in Juliana's arms take her to a nice few hours of sleep.  
_________________________________________________

After lunch, Valentina and Juliana were lying on the grass behind the pool area. Valentina had a book in her hand while Juliana was designing some dresses. Juliana had already drawn three, and whenever she was done she would show it to Valentina, seeking her approval, and obviously Valentina loved all the dresses Juliana drew. She loved everything that came from her.

Some time later, with Juliana already designing her fifth model, Valentina sees Juliana smiling at her phone and taking a picture of her drawings. She wonders who Juliana might be sending that photo to, but she didn’t want to ask to not sound impertinent, but three photos taken later, Valentina could no longer handle her curiosity. 

"Your mother is quite curious about those sketches, aren’t she?" She asked with certainty that it was Lupe that Juliana was talking to. Who else would it be?

"And who told you I was talking to Lupe?" Juliana asked her with a smile on her face, and seeing the expression of confusion on Valentina's face she continued, "I'm sending them to Sergio, he asked me yesterday when he came here what I was doing and I told him that, if not studying and patiently waiting for the fashion school to start, all I was doing was drawings and spending time with you. Then he asked me to see my designs."

“Oh, ok.” Valentina didn’t know what else to say. Of all the answers that was the only one that didn’t cross her mind that Juliana was going to respond. Juliana has been talking to Sérgio. How long has this been going on? Had Juliana already shown that she had been talking to him before and Valentina didn’t notice, or has she been talking to Sergio all this time without her knowing? But why would Valentina have to know who Juliana was talking to or not? Or would she have to know? Why Sergio? Why was she feeling this anger rising out of nowhere and making her want to question Juliana why was she talking to Sergio so much? Since when were they such friends?

Valentina didn’t know what to say, and not to say something weird or act, she just nodded and went back to her book.

Juliana realized instantly how Valentina's body reacted when she said she was talking to Sergio, and she regretted it at once. But she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Or was he? What happened between her and Sergio was a mistake that they both knew, that Valentina was already aware of and that they had already talked about. So everything was fine. Or at least Juliana wanted it to be."Are you okay?" Juliana asked Valentina, trying to get her attention so that her eyes fixed on each other, and where Juliana could read and understand everything she wanted, just by staring at them.

"Yes, I am. I'm just going to read my book again." Valentina replied without even looking at her. "I'm in a very interesting part."

"Which part?" Juliana tried again, and this time she laid on her back in the blanket between them and the grass, standing on the opposite side of Valentina, who was lying on her stomach. But even so Valentina didn’t take her eyes off the book.

"I'll tell you later... I don’t want to get lost."

"Okay," Juliana said with a sigh. "I'll get a glass of juice in the kitchen. Do you want something?" She asked standing up.

"Ah, no thanks, I still have my water here." Valentina said and this time she looked at Juliana and smiled. Juliana smiled back and headed toward the kitchen, wondering if the reason for the sudden change in Val's mood was that Juliana was actually talking to Sergio.  
_______________________________________________

The rest of the afternoon for them passed quickly after Valentina gave the idea to teach Juliana how to play Tennis, which was a sport she loved, but with Guille not living in the house anymore she had not practiced for weeks, and she missed it. Teaching Juliana to play would be great for her, because she would be practicing something she loves, and as a bonus, would see Juliana in sports suits, which was never too much.

She thought it would be a little more complicated to teach Juliana how to play, since Tennis was a sport of great physical strength and agility, but with an hour of training Juliana was already playing very well. She picked up the system of how the game worked faster than Valentina, and definitely learned faster than Valentina how to lay all her strength on her arm where the racket was held, which was more important. But to understand why Juliana had learned so quickly was not difficult for Valentina: Juliana's body was much more prepared than hers when she began playing. Juliana was much more muscular and much stronger. Valentina has always been very tall and very thin, she only started to gain muscle after her tennis classes.

So, to Juliana have won their last match was no surprise to Valentina.

"Okay, I give up, you win." Valentina said putting her arms up in redemption and sighing deeply trying to search for air. "It's ridiculous, just ridiculous that you have learned to play so fast." She continued, her breathing returning to normal.

"You talk like it's the hardest thing in the world." Juliana said laughing as she came up close to Valentina, trying to calm her breathing too.

"You are ridiculous." Valentina said and stole a kiss from Juliana when she got close enough. "It's difficult, it's complicated, the problem is you and everything you do seems to be easier than normal, where did you get that force anyway? It’s really, and by really, I mean really hard to learn how to lay your strength on your arm."

Juliana shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don’t know, I used to run in the US at school, I wasn’t the best but I wasn’t bad either. It made me forget a little about my life, it was cool, I guess that's why I have a little more resistance." Juliana replied smiling and melting Valentina completely. "But you were not bad either." She said, slapping Valentina's exposed stomach and heading toward the house. "I'm going to take a shower. You coming too?" And with that question, Valentina could do nothing but follow her wherever she wanted her to be.  
_________________________________

After the shower the two of them were lying in Valentina's room, watching anything that was happening on the TV, but neither of them paying much attention to anything, until Juliana received a notification. Juliana, who had her back on Valentina’s front, felt her body tighten with the notification of a new message, and Juliana decided it was time for them to talk again about what had happened, once and for all, to make everything clear.

"Okay, talk to me." Juliana said turning to Valentina and sitting cross-legged. "Why are you like this with Sergio?"

Juliana was so objective that left Valentina a little uneasy, and it wasn’t something that Juliana did very often. But, as much she wanted to talk about it and make everything clear, she didn’t want to talk about it at the same time. "Nothing happened..-"

"Of course something happened, Vale." Juliana said cutting her. "Yesterday he came here and we were talking and he seemed ok, and then when I came back the two of you were a little tense and he looked weird and then he left. Earlier today when you found out I was talking to him you literally stopped doing what you were doing and seemed like you were absorbing what I had said. And now with this message notification, that you don’t even know from who it is, your body got all tensed up again reacting as if you know who it is. So, please, tell me what happened. I thought everything was ok but there’s clearly something upsetting you”

“Are you seriously asking me about it…”Valentina said under her breath, and sat down just like Juliana. "Is it serious that you're asking me this?" Valentina asked, arching an eyebrow and glaring at Juliana.

"Yes, I am," Juliana said, staring back. "I thought what happened between the three of us was already resolved."

"Resolved.. how was it resolved, Juliana?" Valentina snorted and got up from the bed. "How is it resolved if we barely talked about it?"

"We did talked about it, a few days after it happened, I told you everything!" Juliana said getting up too.

"Oh, you call that a conversation?" Valentina asked, staring at Juliana. "You said a lot of things, Juliana, you said everything really fast and I don’t remember it all. And I had actually forgotten about it, that that happened, but seeing you and Sérgio all smiles just made me really insecure and then I just remembered everything at the same time and now I feel like I’m drowning and I found out the same day it was Lucho’s funeral and everything is just a mess in my head right now." She said with tears in her eyes.

"Val.." Juliana said trying to calm down, hating that Valentina was crying about it again. She took Valentina's hand, as she tried to pull it out, but Juliana grabbed it tighter and guided it back to bed, where they both sat on the edge. “Let’s talk about it right now again and it will be the last time, ok? This is not something I’m proud of or something I want to remember regularly.”

“Ok.” Valentina whispered staring at Juliana.

“I’m going to start from the begin, ok?” Juliana asked her again. “But please, let me say everything that I have to say and then you can talk. Deal?” Juliana stared at Valentina waiting for her to respond, and then a few seconds later she saw the brunette nod lightly.

"OK." Juliana took a deep breath before speaking, thinking about where she was going to start. "First of all, I need you to know that I just had a fight with my mother. That’s where the whole thing started. I wasn’t talking to her since she'd caught us kissing in the kitchen. Then we had a discussion that day and she told me that I was dazzled by your money and then I heard her arguing with Panchito about what people would think if they found out about me and I decided to leave the house. I couldn’t live with a person who didn’t accept me the way I am, let alone live a life to please others. I don’t care what others think of us, Val. I don’t give a shit. I care about what us think about ourselves." Juliana said caressing Valentina's face. "So I went to Perlita's restaurant to try to get a job and she told me that I could stay in a small room that she had, at least until I found something better."

"If you had a place to go how did you end up in Sergio's apartment if-"

"Valentina, wait till I finish, okay?"

"Ok, sorry.”

"The next day, after we were texting and you told me that Guille had been arrested, I went to see you and I saw that Lucho and you were there, hugging each other, which obviously was not a big deal. But I didn’t think about it that way at the time and I let my jealousy speak louder and I ran out of your house."

"Yeah, I didn’t know you could run that fast." Valentina said, smiling

"Well, I was angry and blind." Juliana said smiling too. "But it's no excuse. If I had stopped and listened to what you had to say, nothing, and like, literally nothing that happened afterwards would have happened." Juliana said looking at Valentina. "And then I went back to the restaurant and there was my mother, trying to make me go home and saying how my feelings were not valid until I had an experience with a man, until I had a normal relationship. Supposedly, I couldn’t know if I liked men or not if I've never been with one."

"And then you went to take a test.."

"No, Valentina, for God's sake, wait till I finish talking!" Juliana looked at Valentina in exasperation. "I didn’t think about taking a test, I couldn’t think of anything. I just felt anger, I felt lost, I had no one, I didn’t have you anymore, I was literally alone, can’t you really understand that?" Juliana looked at Valentina and waited for her to respond.

"I understand." Valentina said softly. "I swear I understand, I'm sorry, it's just that it's all really hard for me to hear.."

"And it isn’t for me to be saying all of this?" Juliana let go of Valentina's hand. “I know that you feel betrayed, and I also felt that I betrayed you when I slept with Sérgio, but we were not together anymore... physically at least, because you were the only thing I could think about, and how badly you would’ve been hurt when you found out. As you were. And you don’t know how bad I felt. Mainly knowing that I was the one who caused you so much pain. But it happened Valentina I can’t change that.”

"Okay, okay, and how did you and Sérgio meet?"

"He went to Chivis' house looking for me but I wasn’t there, so my mother said where I was working that day. He then showed up in Perlita telling me about the work in Costa Rica he had got for me."

"Would you really go to Costa Rica?" Valentina asked, eager for the answer, looking in Juliana's eyes trying to find an answer before it came out of her mouth.

"I don’t know." Juliana replied. "I swear I don’t know. In the situation I was, I probably would’ve gone. I had no place to live and there I would have. Yes, I’d be away from my mother but she had hurted me so bad and you and I were no longer together and at least working away I thought it would be easier to forget you.. or I thought so. Today I'm sure it wouldn’t have worked." Juliana answered with a smile on her face. "I would have come back for you."

Valentina smiled back and after a few seconds of her looking at Juliana, she remembered what they were doing. "Ok, back to the main point.."

"Yes, okay, he was telling me about Costa Rica and he asked me to lunch with him so he could give me all the details. Perlita allowed me to go earlier and then I went with him. While we were having lunch I told him the situation with my mother and said that I had left home, he then told me that there was a place for me to stay until I went to Costa Rica. Then we went to the apartment and he showed me that he had taken a bottle of Mescal so we could celebrate. To new beginnings." Juliana stopped and watched Valentina's reaction when she mentioned the alcohol. "Before we drank I told him that I had seen you and Lucho hugging in your house and asked if he thought you would get back together... he told me that he didn’t know what to expect, because you two always ended and came back together, multiple times, and that he manipulated you and you manipulated him and that you two were like that, that was how you worked and that he didn’t doubt that you were going to be together again."

Valentina was burning with rage inside. She trusted Sérgio. They were childhood friends, for God's sake. And there he was, taking Juliana away, saying she was manipulative and inducing Juliana to drink.

"And I know Val, I don’t drink." Juliana said quietly, taking Valentina out of her thoughts. "And I already said that a lot of times and I refused on a number of occasions, but on that day I had no reason to refuse it. It was all falling apart, I thought you would probably go back with Lucho, so I really didn’t have anything left to lose. I always thought drinking made things worse, because that was the example I had at home with El Chino, but at that moment I thought drinking would not make it worse, because it was all shit already." Juliana stopped. "I just didn’t think that everything could yes, get worse."

Juliana stopped talking for a moment and looked at Valentina, who was no longer looking at her. Juliana noticed how Valentina tightened her blanket, leaving the tip of her fingers almost white. She took Valentina's hand in hers and carried them to her lips, giving little quick kisses.

"I want you to understand that everything that happened between me and Sergio I wanted to." Juliana said looking at Valentina, still holding her hands. "He didn’t make me do anything. I went to his house. I decided to listen to what he had to say about a subject that he had nothing to do with and allowed him to talk about your feelings with him having no idea how strong were your feelings for me. I decided to drink too. Ok? He didn’t forced me to do anything.” Valentina nodded, unable to say anything. 

"So Sergio started talking and talking while I drank and drank, but the truth is that I wasn’t hearing anything he was talking about until he told me that he couldn’t believe I didn’t like men. That I was confused, that you were very beautiful and that.. I had fallen for your beauty, but at the end, I was just confused." Juliana let go of Valentina's hands and started pacing around the room. "And I was just tired. Tired of everyone telling me what I should or shouldn’t feel. For whom I should fall in love with. That I was confused. And I was tired of hearing people telling me what to do. And he just kept talking and talking and then I just.. I shut his mouth. And the rest is history. The worst kind."

"You shut his mouth?" Valentina asked looking confused.

"Is it serious that from everything I said that was the only thing you heard or wanted to point out?" Juliana asked, a little amused.

"How did you shut his mouth, Juliana?" Valentina asked standing up.

"Are you serious?" Juliana asked now, laughing. Valentina then took her by the waist, threw her on the bed and climbed on top of her, and began to kiss her. "Did you shut his mouth like that?" She asked, breaking the kiss so they could both breathe.

"No." Juliana said with her eyes closed, trying to catch her breath. "Nothing that I did with him came close to what we do, or what I felt and feel when it’s just you and me, nothing, nothing, nothing. If the experience with Sergio was worth something, it was to show me that I want to be far away of any kind of man in the universe." Juliana said laughing. "And if that labels me as a lesbian, whatever. But I just want you." She continued, stroking Valentina's face. "I just want to sleep and wake up with you by my side. I just want to feel your kisses and your skin against mine, your breath on the back of my neck when we are asleep after you finally decide to be the bigger conch."

Valentina smiled at what Juliana said and laid on her chest, trying to calm down a bit.

"I know you're jealous of Sérgio and would totally understand if you had a base to feel like that, and you don’t have, you never had, you never will. But yes, I do understand were that jealousy came from and it was because we never really talked about it. Like we just did. Or I did and you listened.” Juliana smiled to Valentina. “But I’m curious, do you remember the second time I went to your house and he and Lucho were there, and you told me that Sérgio liked me?" Juliana asked Valentina and she nodded. "Don’t you remember the face of disgust I made?" 

"Oh my God.” Valentina said laughing, placing her head on Juliana’s neck. “I remembered now, I should’ve remembered it yesterday when I saw you two together."

"Sergio is a friend Vale. He’s not a close friend, but he is a friend. And he’s lost Lucho too and beyond you being his friend too, you are the only thing that connects Lucho with him. And he adores you. He kind of betrayed you by being with me, breaking the bro code, yes.” Valentina chuckled hearing that.” But so did I and you forgave me, right?" Valentina nodded. “So what really matters is that I don’t want anything to do with him, or any men on earth, or any other woman unless it’s you." Juliana said, lifting her hand up to Valentina's face so she could look into her eyes. "And I want you to understand this once and for all, because I don’t want to talk about it any more. Like, ever again. I love you, Valentina. I love you very very much.”

Valentina stared at Juliana in shock. She hadn’t said she loved Valentina yet, even Valentina hadn’t said it out loud. They only knew that what they felt for each other was very strong. But hearing her saying it made Valentina's heart overflow with a happiness she had not felt in a long time.

"I love you too." She said gently kissing Juliana. "I love you so, so much. So much. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to go through all this alone. Having to leave the house and listen to the only person you had and trusted that you were not normal and that she wouldn’t accept you as you. But believe me, you have me today. And I accept you. You are my normal. And as much as we don’t have to deal with your mother being homophobic ever again, we still have to go through a lot of things to be together, but you will not be alone anymore. You have me. Forever. And this Sérgio subject is over. For good. I trust you. And I trust that I do everything so much better than Sérgio too." Valentina laughed, making Juliana laugh too.

“Yeah, you do.” Juliana said, pulling Valentina to her so they could kiss again and just seal this subject for good.  
______________________________________________________

"Juls."

Silence.

"Juliana."

More silence.

"Juls, wake up." Valentina was behind Juliana, holding her while they sleep. She stroked Juliana's arm up and down trying to wake her up.

"Hmmm." Juliana mumbled.

"Babe, I have something important to ask you." Valentina said looking to the sleepy girl beneath her through the lampshade light.

"Is it really important that you can not wait until tomorrow morning?" Juliana asked still not moving.

"Yes! It would be too late and I need that when people ask you who am I to you tomorrow morning, you're going to say 'she's my girlfriend, isn't she the most beautiful and charming and smart-'

"Wait, what?" Juliana said turning to her.

"What what?" Valentina asked back.

"What did you just say?"

"That I'm beautiful and charming and smart-"

"No, Val." She stooped, not taking her eyes off Val's. "You said I needed to tell you that you're my girlfriend?"

"Well, of course. Are not you that? "

"Ahm .. yes?"

"Only…. What's the deal? "

"Nothing it's just ... we had not made it official, I mean I have not asked you. Directly. "

"And that's why I woke you up, so you can ask me." Valentina said beaming at Juliana.

"You are so weird." Juliana beamed back. "I don't even know why I have to ask such a thing. I have early classes tomorrow and you're keeping me up. "Juliana then got on her knees.

"What are you doing?" Valentina said laughing.

"I don't know. It just felt right. "Juliana said and took Valentina's hands into hers. "Valentina Carvajal. Would you like the honor of being my girlfriend? "

“Ha,” Valentina said sarcastically. “Of course I want to.” She said and pulled Juliana over her. “The weirdest part is that, we were already kind of girlfriends right? But whenever people asked I always didn’t know what to say, it felt weird, as if we were not. It was stupid.”

“I know. I felt the same way.” Juliana laughed. “But now we are officially girlfriends.” Juliana said giving Valentina a peck. “Do you feel any differently?” 

“No.” Valentina smiled. “Do you?”

“No.”

“Ok, let’s go back to sleep then, because we will be feeling differently dead tomorrow morning for our classes.” And with that, Juliana went back to her previously position between Valentina’s arms and they drifted back to sleep.

______________________________

"Wanna know what will be funny about all of this?" Juliana asked after a few minutes.

"Hmm?"

"When people asks us in the future who asked first to be girlfriends and how was it we are going to say that it happened in the middle of the night, after we had argued about my first time with a man." 

"Go to sleep Juliana." 

"Wha- I'm serious! It's so romantic!" Juliana said laughing.

"I'm serious too." Valentina was laughing too. "Now go to sleep." And then they tried to sleep again with smiles on their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi again!  
> Thank for reading!
> 
> I hope you guys liked. Please leave comments, I had a blast writing this for you.  
> If you want to talk and tell me how horrible this was or how great this was or just tell me more ideas for one shots, you can follow me on twitter @baielas. i write a lot of shit in portuguese but in english too, equal rights you know. 
> 
> btw, I just really want to make something clear about this whole thing with Sérgio.
> 
> I really think he took a little advantage of the situation that Juliana was in. She was vulnerable and alone and he knew it, but I didn't think she had noticed his malice, so much so that she said she wanted to do everything wjen she was talking to Vale, yes she wasn't forced to do anything, but behind it all Sergio was manipulating her.
> 
> What he say about Valentina being manipulative with Lucho? I kind of believe it too? Their relationship was very toxic and Valentina is not naive, she knew how to use Lucho when she wanted to.
> 
> With that said, I know a lot of people were a bit annoyed that the situations Juliana was subjected to were not very well developed in the novel, but let's remember that she was a secondary character and the novel wouldn't have time to work on everything, for example every time she was almost raped, her kidnapping and how the environment she grew up affected her emotionally as well.
> 
> I must also remember that I write thinking about how they would react, and not how I would react in certain situations. I would certainly have noticed Sergio's malice. But who knows if Juliana also realized and only took advantage of the situation too, right? She might be naive but she's definitely not dumb, who knows.
> 
> But there's one thing we do know! In the film and spin off I'm sure they will give Jul's story much more developed, after all she will be one of the protagonists. And that's it, thanks for reading!


End file.
